The present disclosure relates to methods and systems that are related to circuit design, and more specifically, to systems and methods that determine the size and placement of capacitors within integrated circuit designs.
Many computerized systems are available today that greatly aid the circuit designer in the tremendously calculation intensive science of integrated circuit design. Such systems use specialized software programs that operate on computerized devices. One type of software program assists designers with the task of positioning items within the space allotted for the specific circuit being designed. Commonly used groups of circuit elements can be joined to create “books” that can be reused in future designs, and such books are commonly stored within an integrated circuit design “library.” Such books are therefore retrieved from the library and placed in a design to add functionality to the integrated circuit design.
However, integrated circuit designs can be very sensitive to layout variation, especially with respect to how layout variation impacts local density, shape variation, and placement of one book versus another. Further, placement of discrete books, such as books of capacitors, results in many layout configurations, each of which has unique manufacturing sensitivities. Also, placement of small individual capacitors is time consuming and requires that time consuming checks be performed to ensure that local density rules are being met.